Finally beat DS2. I really didn't like DS2 as much as DS1 and I guess I'm not sure why. I think it's a combination of not liking the levels or the encounters as much as well as being exhausted from Dark Souls gameplay. Maybe it's just using the controller but I never really felt like I got good at the game. All I did was memorize the enemy's animations, then hit a few buttons with the right timing and the game's aimbot did the rest. When I watch videos playing it just looks stilted and awkward compared to other games.
It also seemed like each zone was just irritating. If I go down the list of:
http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/LocationsWhen I look at most of the zones I just remember dumb elements in it to make the game annoying.
Ex: Shrine of Amana combined so many annoying gameplay elements into one of the few beautiful zones: "Let's make the entire zone covered in shallow water so the player moves super slow in it. And let's make it so that the player isn't sure if they're walking off a cliff unless they point the camera downward! (Note: I found if I disabled pretty water I found I could see through the water more effectively....) Let's throw a bunch of really easy enemies in there that snipe at you from long range! It won't be difficult, just annoying!".
Black Gulch was another one. The cave was beautiful and interesting, the two monster types in it were cool (but way too easy), but having poison spitting vases everywhere ruined it. I just wanted to get the hell out of the zone asap and didn't even bother exploring.
I also didn't like the hallowing mechanic, but I guess I kind of avoided it. I used the ring of binding, ignored the hallowing effect and ended the game with some 50 human effigies.
Around the time I killed the smelter demon I wanted to stop and just kept going to finish the damn game. I bought one of the DLC and can't imagine wanting to play it. I don't think I'll even bother playing DS3.